More than 130 applicants throw their name into the hat
~ By Bob Volpe ~
Last Tuesday evening, the Woodland Park City Council met in a special session to fine tune the search for a new city manager with the help of an outside consultant.
Josh Jones of CPS HR Consultants (Cooperative Personnel Services), a specialist in human resources gave a brief introduction of himself and his company. Jones was introduced by City Attorney Erin Smith. Smith reminded council of their desire to use a human resource specialist to avoid any conflicts of interest or illegal dealings while going through the process of hiring the city’s top boss.
Jones was there to offer training to the council on how to go about the process of interviewing and hiring the new city manager without running into roadblocks presented by state and federal law.
After the brief introduction, council retreated to executive session to learn more about Jones and to receive tips and training on the hiring process.
Upon returning to council chambers, Smith read the timetable that was agreed upon for hiring the city manager. The timeline is as follows: Candidates must be selected by May 15. Interviews with selected candidates via Skype will be conducted by May 21, and finalist interviews will be held the week of June 4. The selection process will include consultant screening of candidates, council Skype interview with finalists, and council final interviews.
The deadline to apply for the position was April 1, and the city received a total of 134 applications for the highly touted job. There are no applications from inside city government, but there have been a couple from the local area at large. The city has featured a much higher number of contenders for city boss job than it experienced in past searches. This will be the city’s third search for a top manager since the mid-1990s.
The city began their search to replace retired city manager David Buttery in late January. Buttery officially left city service on Friday, April 13th. He had served as the city’s top boss for a little more than 10 years but was employed with the city for more than two decades.
